Phoronix has published initial benchmarks for the Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor running on Ubuntu Linux. The review focuses on the CPU performance of this 16-core Arrow Lake H chip in a Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 laptop. Comparisons are made against various Intel and AMD processors in other laptops.
Lenovo provided the ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 laptop to Phoronix for Linux testing, marking the first opportunity to evaluate an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H "Arrow Lake H" device. This mid-tier to higher-end mobile processor features 16 physical cores, including 6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, and 2 LPE-cores. It supports a maximum turbo frequency of 5.1GHz on P-cores with a 2.0GHz base, 4.4GHz maximum E-core turbo, and 2.5GHz maximum LPE-core turbo. The chip includes 24MB of Intel Smart Cache, a default base power of 28 Watts, and a maximum turbo power of 115 Watts. Memory support reaches up to 128GB of LPDDR5/LPDDR5x or DDR5-6400 across two channels, paired with Intel Arc 140T graphics, though the ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 uses discrete graphics.
Benchmarks were conducted on Ubuntu 25.04, utilizing the Linux 6.14 kernel, GCC 14, and Mesa 25.0, with tests in both default balanced and performance profiles to assess full capabilities. The review compares the Core Ultra 7 255H against a range of competitors, including older Intel Core i7 models like the i7-8550U in Dell XPS 9370, i7-1065G7 in Dell XPS 7390, and newer ones such as Core Ultra 7 155H in Acer Swift Go 14. AMD counterparts tested include Ryzen 7 4700U in Lenovo IdeaPad 5, Ryzen 9 5900HX in ASUS ROG Strix G513QY, Ryzen 7 7840HS in Framework 16, and recent Ryzen AI models like Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in ASUS Zenbook S16 and Framework 13.
The article highlights the processor's performance and power efficiency under Linux, with a full ThinkPad P1 Gen 8 review forthcoming. The device operated smoothly on modern Linux distributions.